What is an example of a digital device?

Digital devices mean some common items which are working from electronic technology. A digital device is an electronic one that can store and display a digital file. A digital device uses discrete values, such as sounds, images, and other measurements of continuous systems. These are things like a Mobile phone, Kindle, Wii, X-Box, Camera, Computer.

We have all the listenings and videos we want to listen or to watch, as well as access to a range of pictures on the computer. It’s very easy to travel to any part of the world, to see our friends living abroad and to speak to them thanks to computer skype programme.

The new digital world makes professional development so much easier. Blogs are fantastic ways to learn about teaching methods and the ideas of people who we would never get a chance to meet. We can share our ideas with other people on any problem.

Distance learning became possible to everyone. The Open University is the world’s leading provider of flexible, high quality distance learning. Students can find teachers in any subject whether they’re at home sitting in a comfortable armchair and watching a computer screen, at work or on the move. As an OU student you’ll be supported throughout your studies – your tutor or study adviser will guide and advise you, offer detailed feedback on your assignments, and help with any study issues. Tuition might be in face-to-face groups, via online tutorials, or by phone.

With digital friends, you can find out far more than in a physical one-to-one situation before making a commitment. However, keeping the digital friends as just digital friends is not good. Some people’s longest relationship started with an internet contact which, after they'd both decided they could get on well, progressed to a real world meeting and it's still ongoing after over 10 years.

Exercise 2. Answer the questions:

1. What digital devices do you know?

2. What wasn’t there ten years ago?

3. What wasn’t there fifteen years ago?

4. What wasn’t there twenty years ago?

5. What do people use in their work and study nowadays?

6. What can teachers and lecturers use?

7. What is the world’s leading provider of flexible, high quality distance learning?

Exercise 3. Read and translate the text:

Virtual Reality

Not long ago computers were considered an amazing invention. Today they form part of our everyday life. The latest thing today is Virtual Reality. A Virtual Reality system can transport the user to exotic locations such as a beach in Hawaii or the inside of the human body.

The Virtual Reality system is still in the early stages of its development. At the moment it is necessary to put a large helmet on your head to see the simulated world and you have to wear a special glove on your hand in order to manipulate the objects you see there. Lenses and two miniature display screens inside the helmet create the illusion that the screen surrounds you on every side.

You can «look behind» computer— generated objects, pick them up and examine them, walk around and see things from a different angle.

Already today Virtual Reality is used in medicine. In hospitals, surgeons could plan operations by first «travelling» through the brain, heart or lungs without damaging the body. It is also used in police training schools. In schools pupils could explore the Great Pyramid or study molecules from the inside. Developers of Virtual Reality say its potential is powerful.

The word which comes closest to describing Virtual Reality is «simulator». Virtual Reality technology resembles the flight simulators that are used to train pilots. But of course there are dangers as well as benefits. In the wrong hands Virtual Reality can be used for power fantasies and pornography.